In October of 2019, a public hearing was hosted during a Carbon County Commission meeting and it was decided that the Southeast Utah Health Department (SEUHD) would relocate to the former Seventh District Court Building.
Health Director Brady Bradford stated that this project began as the health department grew and added programs, such as opioid and suicide prevention, Children with Special Health Care Needs, and Parents as Teachers.
He also explained that it took some time to arrange engineers and architects as well as secure the funding for this building. Following this, COVID-19 delayed construction by a few more months. However, plumbing and electrical work are now complete, framing and sheetrock is complete in both buildings and painting has begun.
Bradford shared that the employees anticipate being able to move into the new building by November.
In regard to challenges faced, Bradford remarked that it is a challenge to manage the project while the SEUHD is still dealing with COVID-19 related issues. It has also been a challenge to create a plan that will seamlessly merge the two buildings both physically and technologically. The desire to do that is to ensure that the staff still feel like they are part of one broader organization and not alienated.
“It’s always a little bit of a challenge to remodel a building that was built for one purpose, so that it meets another purpose, but we’re excited about how it is turning out,” said Bradford.
Bradford then explained that there are practical challenges of bringing fire suppression into the building and ensuring that the parking lot will be functional for many years to come, as this is the one opportunity to assure that the base and drainage are functioning as needed.
“One of the things that we’re most excited about is easier access to the building,” Bradford stated. “We serve a lot of clientele that have difficulty crossing the ditch in front of our current building (especially in the winter). The design of our clinical services and WIC reception areas will lead to enhanced privacy for those that need services at the health department.”
He stated that the vaccination rooms will better serve families and the SEUHD will be able to host large clinics on site while also having a better ability to work with children using rooms designed for the WIC, Parents as Teachers and Children with Special Health Care Needs programs.
For the staff, they will be able to have windows in most offices and some enhanced employee spaces, such as a larger conference room, a small but useful health and wellness room, and a generator that will help to protect the cold vaccine storage in the event of a power outage.
